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ii"S 



DEFICIENCIES IN OUR HISTORY, 



ADDRESS 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

VERMONT HISTORICAL 

AND 

ANTIftUARIAN SOCIETY. 



f* 



V 



yt AT MONTPELIER, 

> N OCTOBER 16, 1846, 



With an appendix containing the charter, con- 
stitution AND BY-LAWS OF THE SOCIETY, THE VER- 
MONT DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, JANUARY 
15tH 1777, THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CON\JENTION, 
4th of JUNE, 1777, AND THE " SONG OK THE VER- 
MONTERS," IN 1779. 



BY JAMES DAVIE BUTLER, 

Professor in JVorwich University. 



MONTPELIER : 

EASTMAN & DANFORTII 




9 M V 



&&M^ 



i) E b' 10 I E N C I E S I K u U R 11 1 ;, V o H V 



A]>DRESS 

DELIVERED BEFORE THK 

VERMONT HISTORICAL 

AND 

M SOXiiETY, 

AT il N T P E L I E R, 

OCTOBER IG, 1846. 



BY JAMES DAVIE BUTLEK, 

Professor in JVorwich Univeisity. 



MONTPELIER : 

EASTIVIAN & DANFORTH 

1846. 



1=4^ 



'r^y 



ADDRESS. 



J^ellow Citizens of Vermont: 

The life of old nations ia memory. In the old worlil travellers 
daily behold great events and the scenes of them — not only commem- 
orated by monuments, but canonized by chapels and altars. 

Young nations live in hope rather than in memory. (While press- 
ing forward to those things which are before, they forget those which 
are behind.) This truth finds many exemplifications in our history, 

A circular was recently sent to every town in Vermont that was 
incorporated when our State independence was declared, requesting 
information concerning the 71 signers of that declaration. It was 
vouchsafed only one answer. Our declaration of State independence 
was never published in this State until last summer, and then only in 
fugitive newspapers. The papers of our first and most memorable 
Governor were sold to a pedlar with paper rags 

The cannon taken (in defence of our frontier) at Bennington lie 
unclaimed at Washington. The maps, captured at the same place, 
were used as curtains until all, save one, perished. The grenadiers' 
arms and drum there taken, and presented as a trophy to our State 
council were received with a promise that, according to. the donor's 
request, they should be kept in the council-chamber as a memorial 
of the glorious action fought at Wallumscoik. But this trophy has 
been vilely thrown away. 

Properly speaking we have no rostrum. A rostrum is a speaker's 
stand begirt with memorials of vanquished foes. We have none. 

Facts such as these prepare us to expect a universal apathy in re- 
gard to our history, and move our s[)ecial wonder that we can boast 
S9 many historians, and several worthy of no common praise. 

It is no great discredit to our liistoriaiis that they are in many re- 
spects deficient, since they were forced to make brick without straw, 
the collections needful for the adequate execution of their task, which 
are still imperfect, not having boon fairly begun, when most of our 
chroniclers wroti;. 

k is simply because no one else could be founii to stand in the gap, 
that I venture to appear belore you at this time, inasmuch as I must 
appear to the same disadvantugc with our historians. I have, indeed, 
had access to sources of knowledge which were hid from their eyes ; 



4 

l)Ut 1 have enjoyed this privilege only a few days, and under the 
double pressure oi" jniiiisterial and professional labors, as well as 
with one foot on the cradle, in the judgment of many a much greater 
impediment. 

The subject which I would invite you to consider, is certain defi- 
ciencies in our State histories. 

The controversy of Vermont with New York has never been de- 
.scribed ;is its merits, and the richness of materials regarding it, 
demand. 1 have drawn up a list — which, pardon me, I do not mean 
to read — of fifty questions concerning it which demand elucidation. 
No historian hints— what every historian should have clearly shown 
—that that strugjile was not merely about the price of land, but a 
conflict between New England and New York principles — those of 
the Puritan and of the Patroon ; — between our township system, with 
local elections and taxes, and New York centralization. 

I am constrained to pass in utter silence, however, the manifold 
short-comings of our writers in respect to our relations to all our 
sister States. 

The part Vermont took in the Revolution is rather shadowed 
forth than distinctly traced by our historians. 

They claim for us indeed a share in the taking of Ticonderoga, as 
well as in the siege of St. Johns ; in the battle near Bennington, and 
perhaps in the taking of Burgoyne. 

But, though much is said of battles as far oft' as Braddock's defeat, 
instead of a distinctive account of Vermont's military career, her ex- 
ploits are so blended with those of the continentals, or so imperfectly 
detailed, as to lose all individuality. 

As to the capture of Ticonderoga, it is said, men from Ccnnecticut 
came to Vermont to engage Ethan Allen in the business. It is not 
hinted that Allen had ever before thought of such a project, even in 
his dreams. What is the fact } Allen's own testimony is, that when 
the men from Connecticut arrived in Bennington, he and other ofii- 
cers of the Green Mountain Boys were already deliberating upon 
a [U'oject for surprising that fortress; though whether such a measure 
would be agreeable to Congress or not, they could not for certain 
determine. 

A full month before any step was taken in Connecticut, fur seizing 
Ticonderoga, an agent, recently dispatched through Vermont to 
Montreal, thus wrote the committee of correspondence in Boston : 

''March 29, 1775. 

" One thing I nmst mention to be kept as a profound secret. 
The port of Ticonderoga must bo seized as soon as possible, should 



hostilities be coiuiiiitted b\' the king's troopi-. The people of the Ne\r 
Hampshire Grants have engaged to do this business •, and in my opin- 
ion, they are the most proper persons for this job. 

" This will effectually curb this province, and all the troops that 
may he sent here." 

This last particular, the importance of Ticonderoga as the key 
alike of New England and Canada ; the usefulness of the cannon 
there taken, at the siege of Bosioii and elsewhere ; its having been 
thought worth sacrificing thousands of lives ; its being surprised by 
men destitute of bayonets, of a single bayonet, — are particulars 
which one wonders our historians have not made more prominent, 
since all but one-sixth of those, who effected the surprise, were Green 
Mountain Boys, and this was the first offensive exploit in the war of 
our Independence. 

The readiness of the Vernionters for the Revolution, even before 
hostilities began, is indubitable, but is not made manifest in our his- 
tories. 

Among Slade's State papers, indeed, there is an assurance from 
the Vermonters given to New Hampshire and Massachusetts four 
weeks before the aftVay at Lexington, that " they shall always be 
ready for aid and assistance to those States, if, by the dispensations 
of Providence, they should be called thereto." I have found no allu- 
sion to this assurance in any history. 

But the preparation of heart in Vermont for hostilities is attested 
by more particular evidence even than this. Seven weeks before 
the 19th of April, Ethan Allen wrote a leading man in Connecticut, 
promising a regiment of Green Mountain Boys in case of war. This 
letter is still extant in manuscript. 

More than half a year before the war of the Revolution began, a 
rumor that the British had slain six men, and seized a depot of pow- 
der, electrified New England. A chronicler of those times says : 
" The heads of the Bennington body, of 2000 armed mew, forthwith 
gave out orders that they should get ready to march." 

Allow me next a glance at the invasion of Canada. None of our 
later historians give due credit to the diplomatic address of our Fay 
and Ira Allen, which contributed to the capture of the British fleet. 
After the full of Montgomery, Gen. Wooster, who was sent for, to 
the command of the forces besieging Quebec, in despair of other 
assistance, wrote thus to Warner in Vermont : (2, 162 :) " Let me 
beg of you to collect immediately as many men as you can, and 
somehow get into this country, and stay with us till we can have 
relief from the colonies. Let youi men be scni on by tens, twenties, 



6 

thirties, forties or fifties, as they can be collected." Within eleven 
ilays from the writing of this letter at Montreal, in the dead of win- 
ter, Green Mountain Boys were on their march for Quebec. In 
about two months the force of effective men before that city was al- 
most doubled by reinforcements under Warner. But for this sea- 
sonable relief, the retreat from Cauada might have been a rout, or 
our whole army there have been forced to capitulate, (or, to use a 
phrase very common soon after, might have been Burgoyned.) 

Some of our histories mention the arrival of twenty-seven men 
from Massachusetts before Quebec. They are all silent respecting 
— what it much more behoved them to relate — ten times as many 
recruits from our own State. Nor do they, with one exception, so 
much as once mention the name of Warner ia all their notices of the 
winter campaign in Canada. 

In relation to Allen's attack on Montreal, our historians say that 
Brown was, by some means, prevented from co-operating with Allen 
as he had agreed to do. The question, by what means, still remains 
unanswered. The answer to it might show that the blame of Allen's 
finding captivity for himself, when he sought the capture of Mon- 
treal, is not to be charged solely to bis own fool-hardiness. 

Our State histories say nothing of the supplies forwarded from 
Bennington to Ticonderoga, in 1776, at a time when, but for such 
assistance, that fortress might have been lost. 

The next day, after receiving a call for flour, the Committee an- 
swered, that, without an hour's delay, they had sought for wheat, and 
found 1000 bushels ; wouM send on what was ground forthwith, and 
the rest as soon as it could be manufactured. They add these words 
to the commander at Ticonderoga : " It is difficult to transport what 
we have already on hand ; for our militia, even before we received 
your letter, asking assistance, left us almost to a man, marched, and 
have doubtless joined you before this. 

This relief was afforded at a crisis when the tories about Albany 
cut off all hopes of succor from that quarter, and when the troops at 
Ticonderoga had bread for but sixteen days, and were expecting to 
be blockaded. 

Our historians say that on the evacuation of Ticonderoga, our 
Council of Safety resolved to raise all the troops they could to act 
against Burgoyne. 

None of them, however, save Ira Allen, tell us how, with an 
empty treasury, they could raise an army, as it were, by a stamp of 
the foot. The secret of this miracle — a regiment made ready for war 
in a fortnight— was an expedient proposed by Ira Allen himself, (at 



sunrise, after a night spent in devising ways and means,) namely : 
to confiscate instantly all the property of all tories, except such arti- 
cles as humanity required for their families. 

But even Alien fails to bring out fully the alacrity and energy of 
our fathers during this critical campaign. A man in Connecticut 
writes, that agents of Vermont had come thither to buy arms to the 
amount of £4000; and, failing to obtain them, had gone further — 
with what success is to this day unknown. The militia of this State 
were chiefly at Ticonderoga, yet Warner writes : " I should be glad 
if a few hills of corn unhoed should not be a motive sufficient to de- 
tain men at home." Such was the rally that St. Clair, a few days 
after, writes thus: "The Vermont Convention have given such 
proofs of their readiness to coneur in any measure for the public 
safety that it would be impertinent to press them now. 

Our historians would have made it plainer what part Vermont had 
in the taking of Burgoyne, if they had described more fully how sac- 
rificingly she removed or destroyed all crops, cattle, and carriages, 
that were in danger of being seized for bis use, and thus took off his 
chariot wheels. They might have shown the revolution in Bur- 
goyne's feelings effected by the battle of Bennington, and the part 
Vermont was thought by him to have played in that action, had they 
contrasted two of his letters, one written just before, the other just 
after that battle. Aug. 12, he writes to the commander of the expe- 
dition against Vermont : " Try the affections of the country — cross 
the mountains to Rockingham and Brattleboro' — bring me 1300 hor- 
ses or more." Did he know by instinct that this State was a nursery 
of good horses ? 

August 20, eight days afterwards, he writes : " The Hampshire 
grants in particular, a country unpeopled and almost unknown in 
the last war, now abounds in the most active and most rebellious race 
of the continent, and hangs like a gathering storm upon my left." 

Truly be needed not send again to try the affections of such a 
country ! 

The exertions of Vermont against Burgoyne are liable to be under- 
rated, because our histories pass in silence the false rumors which 
then extensively prevailed, and had all the effect of realities. Ti- 
conderoga was evacuated by unanimous vote of a full council of war. 
It was reported by more than one that he could tell whea that for- 
tress was sold, and for how much. One hundred and twenty-eight 
cannon were there lost. This number was exaggerated to 300. No 
artillery men were there alain or captured. It was rumored that 
none of them escaped. The British built do fortification in Castle- 



8 

ton, nor were they there in great force. But the rumor was that 
3000 and then 6000 of them were fortifying there, and that with can- 
non. They never, unless by scouts, penetrated further east than 
Castleton. Tidings crossed the mountain announcing, first, that they 
were at Rutland, then nine miles east of it on the road to No. 4, and 
still pushing on. Burgoyrie never sent a detachment against any 
place north of Rockingham. Common fame declared his myrmi- 
dons on their march for-^oyalton and Newbury. Contemporaries 
speak of this rumor — driving families by scores, and cattle by hun- 
dreds, to flee across the Connecticut. No diversion in Burgoyne's 
favor was attempted at Boston : he had no intention to cross New 
England to Boston ; but both these schemes were firmly believed by 
not a rew. 

Amid rumors such as these, and perhaps others more appalling, 
the memory of which may have perished, men's hearts failing them 
for looking after those things which were coming, the Green Moun- 
tain Boys heard a voice ringing in their ears — 

" Leave the harvest to perish on the field where it grows, 
And the reaping of wheat for the reaping of foes ;" 

and they were deaf to all other voices. 

In describing the operations at Lake George landing, by which the 
vessels, in which Burgoyne might have retreated, were captured, 
both Williams and Thompson leave Warner's name unmentioned. 
But Warner was the commander of that expedition, (3, 729.) Those 
whose names are mentioned — Brown, Woodbridge, and Johnson — 
were his subalterns. 

Herrick, who was at the head of the Green Mountain Rangers in 
this expedition, is also passed in silence by our best historians, 
though he was honored with a special letter of thanks, not only from 
the Vermont council, but from Gen. Gates at the head of the conti- 
nental army. 

Reading WiUiatns' history in boyhood, I used to wonder what be- 
came of that thorn in our side — the British garrison in Ticondernga 
— after Burgoyne's surrender. I have not found what I sought in 
any other historian. The fact is, that that garrison retreated into 
Canada; but not without forty-nine men of their rear, as well as 
horses, cattle, and boats, in great numbers, being taken by fifty Ver- 
mont Rangers. Forty-nine regulars taken by fifty militia. A fact 
like this is worth something to an advocate for the efficiency of 
militia. 

Such were the exertions of Vermont, during this campaign, as to 
prevent the Council from getting the new-made constitution printed. 



(3. 841.) Other results of the campaign are thus stated by Gov. 
Chittenden : 

" Though there were plentiful crops on the ground, the inhabit- 
ants were prevented from securing any consi«lerable part of thetn. 
Before they lefc the service against Burgoyne, the season was so far 
advanced as to put it out of their power to make preparations for a 
crop of winter grain on which they had ever had the greatest de- 
pendence. The principal part of them, therefore, are reduced to an 
Indian cake, in scant proportion to the number of their families. 
Their sheep and flax having been destroyed by the enemy, or having 
otherwise perished, their bellies and backs are become co-sufferers. 

" In this deplorable situation they remain firm and unshaken ; 
and, being generally well armed and accoutered, are ready in any 
emergency, and on the shortest notice, to face and encounter their 
inveterate foe — undaunted." 

There is much history, of the domestic or defensive military pre- 
parations of Vermont, yet unprinted. 

Fragmentary notices of forts are, indeed, scattered through our 
Gazetteer, under the words Hubbardton, Pittsford, Rutland, Castle- 
ton, Bethel, &c. But the system, of which they were a part, is not 
explained in our histories. There are manuscript records — of head- 
quarters in Rutland, often garrisoned by hundreds, — of branch-forts 
with palisades or pickets, flankers and barracks for 150 men, — of 
scouts reconnoitering the woods, passing from fort to fort, seizing 
suspected persons, helping or forcing bold settlers to remove within 
the lines of defence, — destroying such crops as they could not secure 
from the enemy, and continuing their excursions even in winter on 
snow-shoes. 

In this service, it is recorded that one-sixth part of the able-bodied 
men (on an average, one from every family) were, at times, em- 
ployed. When special danger was apprehended, reinforcements 
were forwarded on horse-back. Enlistments were encouraged by 
the bounty of a township of land for each company. Provisions were 
obtained by requiring each town to send on thirty pounds of pork 
with each recruit — by issuing press-warrants for horses and empty 
bags, and by causing the highway tax to be worked out as early as 
possible, to facilitate the transportation of supplies. 

Pittsford was not, as has been supposed, always the most northern 
jiust. In March and A])ril, 1778, a considerable force was posted in 
New Haven, (4. 73.) This may have been one of the new line of 
ferts which Vermont was engaged in erecting when Congress with- 

2 



10 

drew all the natioiuil spades ami pickaxes, and the eiietiiy's vessels 
were cruisinj^ on the lake. 

Particulars such as these are not the pomp and pride of war ; but 
they are worthy to be known, thouj^h unrecorded by our historians. 

Let us next remark certain deficiencies in our histories with regard 
to the tories — the worst foes of our fathers. 

From the best histories of Vermont one would scarcely believe 
there was such a class of men, for their name is seldom mentioned — 
never by Thompson, with manifest reference to Vermont. Doubt- 
less they were fewer than the British hoped when they struggled so 
perseveringly, by threats and promises, to make Vermont a crown- 
province — and than Governor Morris feared, when he thus wrote to 
Congress, (3. 819 :) " Disagreeable as it may be to tell or to hear 
this truth, yet a truth it is, that very many of those villains — the Ver- 
monters — only want a Nevv England reason, or, if you like the ex- 
pression better, a plausible pretext to desert the American States, 
Nevv Vermont among the rest." 

Yet, in a single act of the Legislature, there is a list of 108 tories 
from twenty-nine towns. Half the men in Strafford and Thetford 
fled to Burgoyne — others repaired to the British on their march to 
Bennington. The expenses of war and government were, in a great 
part, defrayed by the avails of tory estates, though sold at a sacrifice 
by auction. 

Records are not wanting of tories that were laid under bonds, or 
imprisonment, for concealing arms and ammunition — for spying out 
the nakedness of the land and betraying it to the enemy ; of some 
that were banished — of others overtaken and killed as they were 
fleeing. The most unique punishment to which they were subjected 
was ilecreed by the Council at Bennington, in January, 1778, after 
this fashion : " Let the overseer of the tories detach ten of them, 
with proper officers to take the charge and march them in two dis- 
tinct files, from this place, through the Green Mountains, for break- 
ing a path through the snow. Let each man be provided with three 
days provisions. Let them march and tread the snow, in said road, 
of suitable width for a sleigh with a span of horses. Order them to 
return, marching in the same manner, with all convenient speed, 
(4, 32.) Let them march at six o'clock to-morrow morning," — 
early rising. 

The practice of confiscating the property of tories originated in 
Vermont, though it was imitated by most other States. In vain did 
the sufferers endeavor to take advantage of certain stipulations in 
their favor in the terms of Burgoyne's surrender. Our fathers dc- 



11 

cided that none could be so benefitted but those who were nt that 
time in his camp. Toryism snapped asunder the bands of society. 
It said, " Trust ye not in any brother, for every brother may utterly 
supplant." It tended to make life here what it was in France during 
the Reign of Terror — the infinite conjugation of the verb suspect. 
How many were wrongfully suspected ! How many were filled 
with revengefulness ! 

Our histories can never do justice to those to whom we owe our 
independence till they tell us, as they have not yet done, how unfal- 
teringly they braved intestine war — personal, as well as public, 
enmity. 

Our histories relate few Indian depredations during the Revolution. 
The burning of, now and then, a single liouse — the capture of a few 
prisoners, usually two or three at a time, and the destruction of 
Royalton — are the substance of their accounts. There was little 
more to relate. 

But much more was to be expected, and was expected. The In- 
dians had desolated so many towns in New Hampshire and Massa- 
chusetts, and three times attacked the first settlement in Vermont, 
though in the extreme south of the State, — why should they not fall 
with redoubled fury and frequency upon those who were more in 
their neighborhood, and had even ventured as near them as New 
Haven and Newbury ? They were stimulated to attack our fron- 
tiers by Johnson's and Carlton's intrigues, and appeals to their hopes 
and their fears. They were enticed to the same enterprise by the 
arts of fugitive tories, burning for revenge and plunder — eager to 
show them the way to slaughter. Doubtless our possession of Ti- 
conderoga, at first, and afterwards the cutting of Hazen's road, 
tended to curb their ravages ; but other circumstances, though they 
have eluded the research of our historians, contributed, perhaps, 
even in a greater degree, to the safety of our frontiers. I will 
glance at one or two. As we have already seen, our preparations for 
defence were more efficient than represented in histories. 

At the outset of the Revolution Ethan Allen dispatched messen- 
gers to win over the Indians — at least, to neutrality. At the same 
time he seat them a characteristic letter in this style : 

" I know how to shoot and ambush like Indians. My foes stand 
all along close together, rank and file. My men and your men shall 
eat and drink together, and fight together against those who first be- 
gan to kill us. If you wish to remain in peace, you need not fight. 
But come and see us. I will give you whatever you want— bread, 
knives, tomahawks, paint, belts, blankets, money, rum." 



12 

Thus ami by other means, many Indians were induced to come to 
Newbury throughout the war, some to settle in that region— many to 
get presents— many to trade, and some to enter our service as scouts 
and spies. 

Some of the Indian chiefs who come to Newbury were sent to 
Washington's army, and there treated with marked attention, as well 
to gain intelligence from them, as to convince them of our power and 
good will. Other chiefs furnished with a list of questions for which 
they were to procure answers, were sent as spies into Canada, and 
the intelligence thus procured was highly valued by Gates, Schuyler 
and Washington. On the whole, Indian incursions may not have 
done us more harm, than the information they furnished, as to the 
disposition of the Canadians, the forts, forces, reinforcements, sup- 
plies, measures and projects of the enemy did us good. 

Though a hundred letters are extant concerning our relations to 
the Indians at this time, I must content myself with one extract from 
one written by General Bailey at Newbury, many years after the 
close of the war : 

" I could not with safety leave the frontier where I was settled and 
join the army. I thought I could be of more service to our cause by 
securing an extensive frontier from the depredations of the Canada 
Indians, which by making friendship with them I effected, for at least 
200 miles. 

" My exertions were such that I was watched and way-laid ni^^ht 
and day, by the enemy from Canada— my house rifled, papers de- 
stroyed, son carried captive, and maltreated, only because he was my 
son, and would not discover to them how his father obtained intelli- 
gence of their movements. To the close of the war, I was employ- 
ed by Washington to keep friendship with the Indians, and gain in- 
telligence of the enemy in Canada." 

It has lately transpired that President Wheelock interceded in our 
behalf, with his former pupil, Brandt, the Indian chief, and that not 
without success. Moreover, proof is not wanting that the British 
Colonel Johnson was taken prisoner by John Warner, but released 
on condition of the Indians being restrained from Vermont. But 
our frontier settlements, however safe, were by no means secure,— 
rather out of danger than free from apprehensions. One of our his- 
torians narrates a panic in Windham County ;— he might have spoken 
of another in Windsor County, when the inhabitants along White 
River lied, many of them by night, lighted by brands of fire, down 
the river to Lebanon ; and of another in Orange County, (4.107), 
when, says an eye witness, families arc this moment rushing into 



13 

Newbury , and for .ixty ...iles they are upon a doubt whether to re- 
move or not. 

Women yet live who can testify of such days when they lived in 
fear of the late of Miss McRea, the bride of Ft. Edward, that Ger- 
trude of Wyoming in real life,-when every rustle of a shaken leaf 
seemed an Indian tread ; every tree an Indian covert-every window 
a mark for h.s rifle, every hamlet fully assured that it wassingled out, 
above all others, as the victim of the savage. 

The relation sustained by our fathers to fndians and tories, as wel' 
as the.r defensive measures having been slightly noticed, and their 
conflicts against the British so blended with those of the Continentals 
by our h.stonans-it is not too much to say that the part Vermont' 
took m the military exploits of the Revolution is 7jet to be written ' 
I cannot speak as I would of the negociations with the British in 
Canada, which turned the last two years of the war into diplomatic 
intrigues, but I must not pass them unnoticed. 

The right of Vermont to adopt policy for power, when Massachu- 
setts and New Hampshire were plotting a Poland-like partition of 
her territory ,-when every continental soldier turned his back upon 
her,-when New York had no voice save to cry confiscation,~^,hen 
an army as large as Burgoyne's was concentrating against her alone 
can scarcely be doubted. But for such a course, the fate of Royal- 
ton would have been that of all her towns. 

Vermont would have yielded to Britain sooner than to New York 
Some have hence taken occasion to say that Vermont was inclined to 
yield to Britain, as if because one evil is greater than another the 
less evil is a good,-as if because Andre prefered being shot to bein- 
hung we should infer that he wished to be shot. " 

Our historians have not failed to refute this slander. They have 
also related how the negotiations with Canada drove Congress to ac- 
knowledge the Independence of Vermont, and how they k^pt an army 
as large as Burgoyne's inactive. It might have been added, that a 
few soft words rendered repeated invasions, full of sound and fury 
though carried as far as Burgoyne's, so fruitless, as to rssemble' 
oceans into tempests rocked to waft a feather, or to fulfil an old say- 
ing in a new sense — 

" Tl'e King of France willi forty tliousand men, 
Marclied up a liill and then — marclied down again." 

The venerable Chipma.i, in the life of his yet more venerable 
brother, has broken a lance not without a wound, though in his old 
age, against the assailants of our leaders in their graves. From his 
reasoning it seems clear, that the Vermont diplomatists never,in all the 



14 

armistice, professed loyalty to the crown, never lifted a finger to re- 
concile any man to it, and that nothing has been proved against them 
which is inconsistent with their avowed objects, namely, to keep the 
British army inactive, and to prevail upon Congress to vote the ad- 
mission of Vermont into the Union as a 14ch State, This sort of 
negative defence of the Green Mountain Chiefs is enough for their 
acquital. Another may be made of a more positive character by 
means of documents to which our historians do not seem to have had 
access. 

Years before, charges of toryism were brought against Vermont 
by those who were not authorized to cast the first stone, and whose 
principal reason for thinking her tory wasthat they had done so much 
to make her so. 

Our truce with Canada was rather a help than a hindrance to the 
last great struggle of the war — the operations against Cornwallis. It 
was either unknown to Washington or understood by him to be a 
political manoeuvre. In the midst of the armistice he wrote to Stark 
commander in the northern department: "I doubt not that your 
requisitions to call forth the force of the Green Mountains will be 
attended with success." Requisitions, remember, to defend New 
York, their bitterest foe. Stark's reply was, that his requisitions 
wei'e attended with success, — that upon a sudden alarm five hundred 
and fifty mounted men from Vermont joined his troops in a few hours. 
Near the beginning of the armistice Schuyler had written to Wash 
ington: " It is believed, that large offers have been made the Hamp- 
shire Grants, but that nothing will induce the bulk of them to desert 
the common cause." 

Washington was privy to the secret policy of Vermont for some 
time — probably more than a month — before the surrender of Corn- 
wallis. This fact, stated but by one of our historians, seems to have 
been discredited by all the rest. It is established by a letter^ long 
given up for lost, (but recently discovered,) and so alluded to. by our 
historians as to excite suspicions that they bad never seen it. Wash- 
ington, therefore, does not appear to have been perplexed by a Brit- 
ish officer's apology for killing a Vermonter in a skirmish — an apolo- 
gy which enraged Gen. Stark and filled Vermont itself from side to 
side, with a tempest of indignation. 

The only evil suggested by Washington as resulting from our di- 
plomatic intercourse with the British was encouraging them to over- 
rate the proportion of tories among us. But what was this encour- 
agement to that they would have taken from the conquest of Ver- 
mont, which, but for being amused with hopes, they would have ac- 



15 

complished ? The one was $hadote the olhev substance. The height 
of their expectation was not greater than the depth of their disap- 
pointment. 

The only remaining charge seems to be that our cabinet acted with 
bad faith toward the British. But, as the British were the chief suf- 
ferers by our policy, they would have been first to cry treason had 
there been any treason. They seem to have viewed themselves as 
worsted by their own weapon, diplomatic finesse. The falsehoods 
told them were not palpable, and will be judged tenderly by those 
who hold stratagems are lawful in war, and that it cannot be wrong 
to deceive him whom it is right to kill. The Governor of Canada, 
not discouraged by failures, continued this pen and ink warfare, more 
years than Troy was beseiged, and even sent to Burlington an envoy, 
who is plausibly supposed to have been his late Majesty, George 
the Fourth. 

"Was it not then worth while for our leaders to make themselves 
of no repuation for a time, that without drawing a sword, without 
thwarting the plans of Washington, without irjjustice even to our ene- 
mies, they might avert the extremest peril.? Luther's words were 
half battles, theirs were more. 

In all our Histories there is a lack of characteristic minuti*. We 
ask for face-to-face details, we receive faroff generalties " where eve- 
ry something being blent together turns to a wild of nothing." 

Seemingly trifling particulars catch our eyes as we gaze at a land- 
scape ; they affect the eye-witnesses of events— they bring the light 
of other days around us as we listen to the narrative of old a^e •— 
they are the sparkiing fountains— abstractions are the vapid stream. 
Some writers may have neglected such fragments, deeming it be- 
neath the dignity of history to stoop and gather them, as if history 
like the Pope was never to be seen except gorgeous with trailing 
robes, or were to represent nations, as some picture books represent 
kings wearing crowns and holding sceptres— even in bed. So far as 
the suppression of picture-like details has been a sin of ignorance, it 
is to be winked at, but not if it has proceeded from scorning them as 
nothing worth. Which of our historians might not profitably copy 
the following account of the evacuation of Ticonderoga, albeit it fell 
from the lips of a negro: — 

"About H o'clock on Saturday night, orders were given by our 
Colonel to parade. We immediately obeyed. He then ordered our 
tents struck and carried to the battery. On doing this, the orders 
were to take up our packs and march, which we also did, passed the 



IC 

General's house on fire, marched 20 miles without a halt, and then had 
a brush with the enemy." 

How shall history hold the nriirror up to nature if not by giving us 
the very words of the actors in bye gone times? Things cannot m- 
deed be all described, then the world would not contain the books 
which would be written, but those parts, the least as well as the great- 
est, should be sought out, which most nearly produce the effect of the 
whole. 

If the ballad writer be as influential as the legislator, why should 
our historians with one consent, refuse us, even in their notes and 
appendixes, a single specimen of the popular songs, the Marsailles 
hymns, — indicted by Rowley and others— sung at the crisis of our 
destiny. 

Can we learn as much in regard to common schools at an early day 
from any of our histories, as from a single remark made to nie by a 
woman, who had no thought of telling any great thing, that in the 
winter of 1780, her brother kept a school in one of the two rooms 
in his fathers log house in Sharon, there being then twenty-eight fami- 
lies in town and that there was no school for five winters afterwards! 
Only two of the sixty-eight settlers in Bennington made their mark ; 
all of the 1006 petitioners to King George wrote their names, and 
Elkins, a boy from Peacham, when a prisoner in England, receiving 
a shilling a week from Dr. Franklin, paid out four coppers of it for 
tuition. 

Do not facts like these throw light upon the popular iutclligence 
and desire of knowledge? 

What incident in our histories shows the inspiriting effect of the 
Bennington battle so strikingly as a trifle they all omit, — a rumor 
which straight way ran through New Hampshire, that Burgoyne 
himself was taken at Stillwater, — coming events cast their shadows 
before. 

I would not willingly be ignorant that in 1764 there were only about 
100 families between the mountains and the river — that a post-boat 
from Canada was taken soon after the seizure of Ticonderoga — that 
an express could be sent from Newbury to Boston in three days, can- 
non from Lake George to the same place in seventeen days — that the 
Vermont uniform was green with red facings — that rum even when 
it rose to ^96, continental money, a gallon, was dealt out in the ra- 
tions, — that Allen gave Warner 400 acres of land for cutting off the 
ear of a Yorker — that each Vermonter after the Bennington battle 
received ^5 plunder money. Each of these trifles is a little window 
through which we can look into the distant past. 



The little said iti our histories in relation to religion, tends to .1i?- 
prove the assertion of Dr. D wight, that "our first settlers were chiefly 
universalists and infidels." There is much to disprove it in the fol- 
lowing details. Orthodox niinisters were early settled in most towns; 
sermons longer than we can bear, and as searching were preached at 
the opening oi' every State Convention and Assembly ; — requests lor 
prayers abound in letters, — pamphlets then printed have beyond all 
comparison more allusions to the bible than to all other books togeth- 
er. When one would put General Bailey on his guard against tory 
liers-in-wait, he dropped in his path a paper with these words on it, 
''The Philistines lie upon thee Samson." 

The word of God was the law-book for all cases falling under no 
statute, and sentences were given according to its enactments. Where 
there was no church or preacher, meetings were held under trees and 
in private houses: such an assemblage delayed one day the burning 
of Royalton. My grand mother used to tell me that during the battle 
of B«nnington,sl)e and many others were met for prayer within the 
sound of cimnon. 

Our writers have not enough availed themselves of vivid particulars 
l)y way of indirect description. 

What can give us a better idea what a long struggle was expected 
when hostilities began, or how our people rushed to the war, than 
these words, written one week after the bloodshed at Lexington from 
that quarter to this. " For heaven's sake, pay the closest attention 
to sowing and planting ; do as much of it as possible, not for your 
own ftimilies merely. Do not think of coming down country to fight," 
What can draw and color more to the life the want of all things. use- 
ful in war, during Burgoyne's invasion than these words of Stark, 
written at his quarters on the Connecticut: 

" I am informed that the enemy have left Castleton and have an in- 
tent to march to Bennington. We are detained here a good deal for 
bullet moulds, as there is but one pair in town, and the few balls sent 
on by the State go but a little way in supplying the whole." 

One pair of bullet moulds! a light visible result significant of how 
many things not so visible. 

Such incidents, like the rude strokes in charcoal-.-ketches, produce 
more effect than many elaborate line engravings. 

The impress! veness of our history is weakened because a thousand 
petty circumstances are scattered here and there through a Gazetteer 
or through volntninous documents— sometimes in widely sundered ar- 
chives, like thr; elementary constituents of Mosaic work instead of 



i.6 



being fitly framed tn^'ether into m lilV-lilcc pifturr, as thoyc of tlio 
French Revolution have been by Cailyle. 

The heroic deeds of our forefathers seeni not to have Iieen apprecia- 
ted; sometimes they are mentioned as thingrf, of course, or unmention, 
edby our writers, though they are not a whit behind the chiefest 
deeds man can boast. 

Luther when the Pope burned his books, burned the Pope's bull. 
In what did he surpass Allen's retorting the setting a price on his 
head by New York, with setting a price on the head of a New York 
dignitary? 

At Bennington, a Green Mountain Boy struck a Hessian officer's 
sword from his hand with a stick, and forced him to make his file of 
men lay down their arms. How few know that hero's name! 

We shall always remember two men that swam the Hellespont,— 
the one from vanity, the other for personal gratification of another 
•sort. We are in danger of forgetting a citizen of our own who swam 
as broad a strait at Ticonderoga, at midnight, threading his way 
through a hostile fleet, not for himself but fur his country,— Richard 
Wallace- worthy to bear the name of him of Scotland, and to be 
equalled with him in renown. 

I have sometimes thought our writers particularly oblivious of fe- 
male heroism as dis}>l(iyed in our history. 

A French maid of honor who lost her arm by foolishly thrusting it 
in place of a door-bar to protect her queen, is eulogised. A womati 
of Vermont suflTered the same loss, defending her husband, with the 
first weapon that offered against midnight kidnappers, and is passed 
over in silence. 

French women are praised for digging and trundling barrows to 
rear a monument of national fickleness. The similar labors of Ver- 
mont women striving to take the places of their husbands who were 
dying in battle are more than half forgotten. 

It is recorded in Scottish history that Knox's daughter would rath- 
er see him beheaded and catch her head in her apron, than have hira 
turn papist. It is not recorded in our history what Vermont mother 
used her apron to staunch the blood of her wounded son, when both 
of them .still every moment were exposed to be scalped. 

None of our histories mention the name of Hannah Handy, whose 
entreaties rescued not only her own children but seven of her neigh- 
bor's children from going into captivity, after they had been already 
taken over White River, and who dared to cross that river on the 
back of an Indian, that she might bring back her jewels. Yet was 
she a heroine before finding a parallel for whom we shall search long. 



19 

But as aiiiiocJutes of Allen were eaj^erly coveted in hio life time by 
distinguished Frenchmen, as ue are learning that our curled nia|)le 
and walnut may compare with mahogany, and that our marbles may 
vie with those of Carrara, which some have crossed an ocean to vis- 
it, so let us believe that heroes and heroines may not always be 
without honor in their own country, and in ours. Such seem' speci- 
mens oftho cardinal deficiencies in our histories as to our part in our 
histories of the Revolution, including our conflicts and our negocia- 
tions with the British, as to minute details, and as to our heroes and 
heroines. 

These deficiences, and countless others in relation to topics on which 
I have no time to touch, have not only been clearly detected by our 
President, but his labors have accumulated materials for supplying 
very many of them. He has gathered together fragments from lake 
to river, from Massachusetts to Canada, — he has spent three months 
together in the collections of sister states, or of the general govern- 
ment ; he has secured correspondents in Canada, and in the person of 
his son, he has broken through the Chinese wall of English exclu- 
siveness, — he has found laws and journals of the Legislature that 
had been given up for lost — he has doubled Thompson's list of Ver- 
mont books before its admission to the Union, — he has saved letters 
by thousands that were ready to perish, and. that cast each its ray on 
the dark past. He has recently added a third to the ponderous tomes 
obtained of him by the State two years ago, — he has collected auto- 
graphs, not to see which with more pleasure tiian Napoleon's would 
cast oninious conjecture on your patriotism, written in such a hand 
as was to be expected from pioneers, but who would look on letters 
of gold with half the pleasure? 

Are all desiderata thensu[)plied by the collections of our President.' 
By no means. Properly speaking he has had to do with only one de- 
partment — military operations — and that during the Revolution. We 
ought to be thankful that he has magnified his office, yet not forget- 
ful that he has exhausted none of the mines of investigation. A bar- 
rel full of papers left by the most interesting military charactcter in 
our annals lies headed up and unexamined to this day. 

The collections of other societies and public offices, whether state, 
national or foreign, remain to be examined or re-examined. The 
papers of every man mentioned in our history are to be sought for, 
and in this search the name of every such man may prove a guide 
useful as a clue in a labyrinth. We must seek for sermons, histories, 
and biographies, hoards of newspapers, ot those thrown away like 
autumnal leaves, journals in manuscript, letters sent out of the State 



20 

to iliuse aom whom the settlers came forth. A rich mine of these is 
iioubLles.s still uiiopeoeil, tor, among hundreds I have examined, I 
have discovered only two addressed to women, and none — no not one 
— written by a woman. But were not woman in those days ready 
writers even as now? Proverbially the best letter-writers in all oth- 
er countries, were they found wanting here ? Did not their letteis 
paint the lights and shades of life in this new State, as they have since 
portrayed western clearings, as those of busy men, less keen-eyed for 
the picturesque and trivial could not, or did not? 

Other sources of historical facts will also be opened to us by lucky 
accidents, too various to be described or to strange to be predicted. 
The gems of sister societies were sometimes found where least looked 
for. The original of the world-farned (English) Magna Charta was 
found in the hands of a tailor, who was just ready to cut it up for 
patterns. One of the most ancient and valuable maps of New 
Ham{)shire, when it extended to the lake, was discovered in a store- 
house where a pedler had left it when he removed his rags, either 
through accident, or judging it not worth taking away. 
What has been will be. 

If such a list of questions as that prepared by the Massachusetts 
society were circulated throughout Vermont, township by township, 
beyond a doubt many early laws and journals of the Legislature, long 
ago given up as irrecoverably lost, as well as much equally valuable 
and more curious information concerning Town Committees and 
Committees of Safety, those cradles of our independance, lacking 
links of every sort in the chains of our annals, might be rescued from 
oblivion. 

No doubt the drag-net of our research will gather of every kind. 
Criticism must therefore have its i)erfect work, in separating the pre- 
cious from the vile. The mass of materials must also be classified 
according to their nature, the time to which they relate, the place 
where they were found, or the purposes for which they may be em- 
ployed. 

Many explanatory notes must be appended to the collections made 
by our President, or what is a plain path to him will appear to those 
who shall come after, " a mighty maze and all without a plan." 

The fruits of our historical harvests and gleanings ought also to be 
garnered up in a chief place of concourse, instead of the corner where 
they are now secluded, — even as the treasures of other states are 
honored with archives in Boston, Hartford, Concord, New York and 
Washington. 



21 

How lieautifiil tiius to have a section of ihe past brouf,'ln sale into 
the present anii set down before our eyes! 

ArrangeiueiiXd are inakii)<,' for publishing the earliest annals of our 
fathers. I trust such a publication will soon take away our reproach 
of beini^ the only State which has had a Society for a series of years 
andyer published nothing, as if our investigations were labor lost, or 
were to be hid(ien in the chaos of a Museum. 

The " Historical readings," published in the State Banner, were 
well received. Let us have more of them, a hundred fold. Let our 
printers whose types presei ve knowledge, bring forth things old as 
well as new. 

What is of more interest than a town history — to each man that 
of his o>vn town.? No where in Europe did I seek without finding 
one. How long shall we desire such histories in vain.'' What true 
patriot loves not his own village.'' 

Who can d.)ubt the capacity of our primitive period to furnish an 
anthology of incidents suited for a reading book in common schools! 
Such a book would have a greater charm for children than things far 
otf and long ago. It might developea spirit of research which nmst 
otherwise perish in emi)ryo. Many an unique document which now 
appears to them as worthless as the jewel seemed to the barn-yard 
fowl, it might lead the;n to appreciate so that they would say, destroy 
it not, for a blessing is it. 

The only incident relating to our history,! remember in my school 
books, is Howe's captivity, and that was in a book long since anti- 
quated. Is there nothing, then, in our history such that we may fitly 
lell in the ears of our sons, and teach it diUigently to our sons sons! 

As a means of securing the ends now suggested we may rejoice 
that we have a State Society, albeit as Jbrae think, it has but a name 
to live. Should we dispise its low estate, knowing that all beggin- 
nings are small? Will it not be a rallying point, nay a magnet at- 
tracting to itself anil binding in union all congenial spirits however 
scattered abroad? Is it not suited to be their organ of communica- 
tion with those like minded elsewhere? W^ill it not increase their 
zeal, by kindling nmtual emulation and by so dividing labors that 
each man shall have an ocffie in keeping with his taste and opportu- 
nities. What better expedient can be devised to keep historical in- 
quiries before the people, m well as to secure the cooperation and 
contributions of their thousand hunds? 

Is it not a imcleus, a resevoir into which rivulets without number, 
invaluable for its purposes though valuless as to all others, will natu- 
rally flow? 



22 

Is it not a company for mutual insurance — not against fire — but 
against a loss which can never, by any possibility be repared? 

An association, of such a nature and of such aims, should com- 
mend'itself to us all. 

States^iien ! Among your motives to scorn delights and live labo- 
rious days is the hope to leave a name that men shall not willingly let 

die can you be indifferent to what concerns the memory of your 

predecessors? Do to them as ye would that posterity should do to 

you. 

Politicians! Will you not welcome our Society, as a little sanctua- 
ry where no war-whoop of party can be heard, — where the interests 
of all parties are one. If you look to dollars and cents, are research- 
es to be sneered at, which by the papers of a single family have ob- 
tained nine pensions, and which may yet substaniate our claim to 
millions from the national treasury? 

Scholars! Can you remember that Massachusetts has published 
scores of volumes to illustrate her history, — that Connecticut, New- 
Hampshire, New York, and even Georgia have followed in her foot- 
steps, and blush not that we are behind them all? 

Ye that have spoken of plants even unto the hyssop that springeth 
out of the wall — that have chronicled every creeping thing that creep- 
eth upon the face of the earth — can you pass by on the other side 
any memorial of the leaves in our history, as if tithingcummin were 
the weightiest of matters ? 

Rich men! The British Museum has last year appropriated more 
than |!20.000 to purchase books relating to America. Many of the 
rarest works on our local annals are led into captivity to London — 
materials, says one, for future Alison's to forge lies from. Will you 
only tighten your purse string* while men in deep poverty are strug- 
linw to secure for ourselves the documents which may be indispensi- 
ble for refuting the half-truths, equivalent to whole falsehoods, which 
will be propounded, regarding our annals, by the party, or prejudic- 
ed writers of England? 

Let us leave our history to be written by foreigners and it will be 
the play of Hamlet with the part of Hamlet omitted. The New York 
account of the taking of Ticouderoga is that " it was surprised by a 
detachment of provincials from Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay," 
as if there had no Vermonter raised a finger. The truth is, as we 
have seen, that the first measures for that capture originated in Ver- 
mont, and that all but one sixth of those engaged in it were Vermon- 
tKrs. 

Our ancestors made themselves of uu reputation for you who hud 



done nothing for them. No del.r can bo more binding on you than to 
see to It that justice is done their memory. 

Is there no hope of any further aid from the State? Shall not this 
State, l.ke so many others, perfect its archives, or shdl the only State 
that redeemed its revolutionary paper money at par neglect to finish 
-secunng even its own laws andjournals, and the records of its courts? 
It .s not fittM)g for the State's money to be laid out to help a man 
travel m England ; but it is a shame to us that we have not sooner 
-secured the services of a gentleman who had gained access to the 
correspondence during the most critical period of our history,-doc- 
uments which others had in vain begged leave toexamine-and who 
wouia have copied it cheaper and better than any other man We 
have refused him hundreds though we might thus have procured a 
better reputation than we can now make of an aspersion which has 
been cast on the fame of our fathers. England is now lavishing 
thousands upon the same man for his assistance in obtainin-^ docu- 
ments in which she can feel comparatively but little interest ° 

Even Georgia has procured the copying of twenty folios regardin.^ 
her history in British public offices. ' " 

The genius of our history says to us, all and each, that thou doest do 
qu.cky.bke the sybil to the ancient king, she year by year brings 
With her fewer and fewer antique .-ecords, but unlike the sybil de- 
mands for them an even inci-easiug pi-ice. 

I trust our Geological scrutiny will meet with no interrnption or 
delay, but were we to leave that scrutiny half unfinished, another 
generation may renew it, and sufl:er no evil from our ne-lect Geo 
logical records are always with us, everlasting as the hills,-they are 
graven in the rock forever, we may read the.n when we will 

The records of our fathei's have in pai-t perished with them,- 
some of then, live in the memories of patriarchs who still stand 
among us with eyes undiraned and natural fo.-ce not abated, as if on 
purpose that such as hold the pen of the ready writer may still em- 
balm their sayings. For this end let each of us build over against his 
own house and rely on himself as though he were the only laborer 
Let us redeem the time, since if our old men pass away unquestion- 
ed no buned Pompeii can be raised from the g.-ave to enlighten our 
wilful Ignorance. How we lack what we have lost ii-ret^rievably ' 
Many of you have stood in the Massachusetts Senate Chamber and 
seen suspended over the enti'ance, a gun, drum, sword and cap, tro- 
phies, not of Lexington, Concord, or Bunker Hill, but of Benning- 
ton. What would we not give to regain the .similar relic,-" those 



24 

bruised arms hung up for monuments," vvhirh we thresv away a^ 
nothing worth. It is too late. 

But let us be up and doing, each in his own order. Every t:tct 
hitherto undetected, we can glean and garner up by means of the 
art preservative of all arts, may be a monument more lasting than 
those trophies in Boston, or than any corruptible thin<is, and what 
is more, vocal with speech that may be heard through nil sp:ice and 
through all time. 



ACT OF INCORPORATION Of THJ] SOCIETY. 

It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State o(" Vermont as foUowa ; 

1st. Henry Stevens, of Barnet, in the County of Caledonia, and Oramel H. 
Smith, Daniel P. Thompson, and George B. Mansur, of Monipelier, in the County 
of Washington, — and such other persons as have associated, and may hereafter 
nesociate, themselves with them, for the purpose of collecting and preserving ma- 
terials for the civil and natural history of the State of Vermont, — are hereby made a 
body corporate and politic, by the name of The Vermont Historical and Antiquarian 
Society ; and, by that name, they, and their successors, may sue and be sued, and 
shall be capable in law to take and hold in fee simple, or otherwise, lands, and ten- 
ements, and rents and hereditaments, not exceeding, in the whole, the yearly value 
of ^'2000.00, exclusive of the building or buildings, which may be actually occupied 
for the purposes of the said Corporation ; and they shall also be capable, in law, 
to take, receive and hold, personal estate to an amount, the yearly value of which 
shall not exceed, the sum of $^2000.00, exclusive of the Books, Papers, Memorials, 
and other articles, composing the Library and Cabinet of the said Corporation ; 
and shall also have power to sell, demise, exchange, or otherwise dispose of, all, or 
part, of their lands, tenements, hereditaments, and other property, for the benefit of 
said Corporation ; and shall also have a Common Seal, which they may alter at 
their pleasure ; and shall also have the power to make By-Laws, with suitable pen- 
alties, not repugnant to the Laws of this State. 

2d. The said Corporation shall have power, from time to time, as they may think 
fit, to elect a President, and such other officers as they shall judge necessary ; and 
at their first meeting, they shall agree upon the manner of calling future meetings, 
and proceed to execute all, or any, of the powers vested in them by this act. 

3d. The Library and Cabinet of the said Corporation shall be kept in the Town of 
Barnet, in the County of Caledonia. 

4th. The said Henry Stevens is authorized to notify the first meeting of the said 
Corporation, by an advertisement thereof, under his hand, for three weeks before 
«uch meeting, in any newspaper printed in this State. 

Approved Nov. 5, 1838. 



FIRST MEETING OF THE 

VerKiOiit Mistorical Jisid AsiiiquariaiJ Soelcty. 

OCTOTBEH, 1S40. 

Pursuant to an Act of the Legislatiii'e of Vernioni, incorporating- The. Vermont His- 
torical and Antiquarian Society, and empowering Henry Stevens to call the first meet- 
ing of said Society, the said Stevens having given the notice by said Act required, 
the several ])ersons,in said Act incorporated, met at Montpelier on tlie third Thurs- 
day of October, A. D. 1840, and elected — 

HENRY STEVENS, of Burnet, President. 

The same, " Librarian. 

D. P. Thompson, ) c „ , • 
,-, n ni > Secretaries. 

Geo. B. Mansur, y 

As officers of the said Society for the year ertsuing ; and Silas H. Jennison, E. A. 
Stansbury, I. F. Redfield, D. M. Camp, E. P. Walton, Daniel Baldwin, G. W. 
Benedict, Solo. Stodard, and Norman Williams, associate members; and adopted 
the following 

CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS. 

Article 1. There shall be a President and two Vice Presidents. It shall be 
the duty of the President, and, in his absence, one of the Vice Presidents, to preside 
in the meetings, and to regulate the debates of the Society and Council ; to call 
meetings of the Council, and extraordinary meetings of the Society, by advice of 
Council. The President, or presiding officer, shall vote in Council, and also have a 
casting vote. The Vice Presidents shall, ex-officio, be members of the Council. 

Art. 2. There shall be seven Counsellors, exclusive of the President and Vice 
Presidents : any four of the whole number shall constitute a quorum. It shall be 
the duty of the Counsellors to direct the Corresponding Secretaries in the perform- 
ance of their duty ; to present to the Society^ for their acceptance, such regulations 
and by-laws as, from time to time, shall be thought expedient ; to receive donations, 
and, with the President, to purchase, sell oi lease, for the benefit of the Society, 
real or personal estate ; to draw orders on the Treasury for necessary monies, and, 
in general, to manage the prudential concerns of the Society. It shall be the duty of 
the Council to inquire concerning the characters of persons, living out of this State, 
proper to be elected Honorary Members. 

Art. 3. There shall be one Recording Secretary, and two Corresponding Sec- 
retaries. The Recording Secretary shall be the keeper of the Seal of the Society. 
It shall be his duty to attend all meetings of the Society and Council, and to make 
and keep records of all their proceedings ; and shall keep on file all literary papers 
belonging to the Society, under direction of the Council. 

It shall be the duty of the Corresponding Secretaries to receive and read all com- 
munications made to the Society, and to manage, under the direction of the Council, 
all the correspondence of the Society. 

Art. 4. There shall be a Treasurer who shall give such security as the President 
and Council shall require for the faithful performance of his trust. It shall be his 



tliity to I'eceive ami keej) ;ill monies and exideiices of property helonging to the So- 
ciety ; to pay out to the order of the President and Council ; to keep a record of his 
receipts and payments ; exhibit the same to, and settle with, a committee which 
shall be annually appointed far this purpose ; and he shall put the money of said So- 
ciety to interest under the direction of the President and Council. 

Art. 5. There shall be a Librarian and Cabinet Keeper, who shall give bonds 
to the satisfaction of the President and Council for the faithful performance of his 
trust. He shall receive and have in his custody all Books, Papers, Productions of 
Nature, and Works of Art — the property of the Society. These he shall arrange 
in classes, and register in a book with a proper description of each article, with the 
donor's name, when the same shall be a present. No article shall ever, on any occa- 
sion, be loaned or taken from the Museum ; nor shall any book or other article be 
borrowed from the Library, except by a vote of the Council, and then the loan of such 
article shall be recorded, and a receipt given therefor by the borrower, engaging to 
return the same in four weeks, or pay a forfeiture, such as by a vote of the Council 
shall be affixed. 

Art. 6. The stated meetings of the Society shall be — one in Barnet, on the 
17th day of January, and, when the same shall fall on Sunday, then the Tuesday fol- 
lowing ; one in Montpelier on the third Thursday in October, at such hours and pla- 
ces as shall be notified by the Secretary. At the annual meeting in Montpelier, in 
October, there shall be chosen, by ballot, all the officers of the Society to serve dur- 
ing the following year, and until others are chosen. At this meeting a public oration 
shall be delivered by some person to be appointed by the Council. 

Art. 7. All nominations for members shall hereafter be submitted to a commit 
tee of three for their approbation ; and, if approved by said committee, the names 
of the candidates, witli the names of the members who proposed said candidates, 
shall be entered in the hook of nominations, and the candidates mny be ballotted for 
at the next meeting of the Society. 

Art. 8. Each member shall annually pay into the hands of the Treasurer at the 
meeting, in October, ^2,00 towards a fund. And every person who shall neglect to 
pay said annual tax, and shall suffer him or herself to be in arrear for three annual 
taxes, after having been called on by the Treasurer in person, or by written order, 
shall be considered as having abdicated his interest in the Society, and no longer a 
member. 

Art. 9. All meetings, standing or special, shall be notified by the Recording 
Secretary, under direction of the President and Council, in one newspaper, published 
in Montpelier, fourteen days previous to the day of the meeting, in which notification 
the hour and place of the meeting shall be designated. 

Art. 10. In case of the death, resignation, or removal out of the State, of either 
of the Secretaries, or the Treasurer, or Librarian, the Council shall take charge of 
the oflficial books, papers and efl'ects belonging to the vacated office, giving receipts 
for the same, which books they may deliver to some person whom they may appoint 
to fill the office until the next meeting of the Society, when there shall be a choice. 

Art. 11. This Constitution shall not be altered, or amended, except at the sta- 
ted meeting in October, and then only by the vote of three fourths of the members 
present. 



28 

BY-LAWS. 

1st. The ballots for tiie election of officers, and the adinission of members, shall 
be collected by a committee chosen by nomination, who shall assort and count the 
votes and make report to the presiding officer ; and he shall declare the result to the 
Society. 

2d. Every member, whoshall advance ^20 to the fiindn shall be excused paying 
the annual tax of ,>(ji2. 

3d. Every new member shall be notified of his election by a printed letter signed 
by the Recording Secretary, 

4tli. The Secretary shall record, in a book for this purpose, the names of the 
members, and the times of their admission. 

5th. AH books and other articles, belonging to the Society, shall be appraised, 
and the price of each article shall be mentioned in the catalogue. 

6lh. A correct catalogii'? of the books, and other articles, shall be made out by the 
Librarian and Cabinet Keeper, or by a Committee chosen by the Society for this 
purpose, which copy shall be kept by the President for tiietime being ; and, as addi- 
tions are made to the Library and Museum, they shall be entered on the Catalogue 
and copy thereof. 

7di. Every deed, to which the Common Seal of the Society is affixed, shall be 
passed and sealed in Council, signed by the President, and attested by the Secretary. 

Sth. There shall be a temporary place of deposit in Montpelier, and in such other 
places as ihe Council shall hereafter direct, for the convenience of those who may be 
disposed to present to the Society any article for its Library and Museum. Every 
article so deposited, shall, as soon after as circumstances will permit, be forwarded 
lo the Library and Museum in Barnet. 

SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 

On the third Thursday of October, A. D. 18-16, the Vermont Historical and Anti- 
quarian Society, agreeably to previous notice, held their seventh annual meeting at 
the Court House, in Montpelier ; when the meeting was called to order by the Pres- 
ident, and the following Officers of the Society were duly elected for the year en- 
suing, viz. : 

HENRY STEVENS, President. 

I. F. Redfield,) v; ^ 

S. B. Colby, $ 

D. P. THOMPSON, Recording Secretary. 

HENRY STEVENS, Librarian and Cabinet Keeper. 

D. BALDWIN, Treasurer. 

E. P. WALTON, ~1 
S. H, JENNISON, I 

I. F. REDFIELD, ICoimsellora. 
D. M. CAMP, I 

D. BALDWIN, J 

After which the Society adjourned to meet at the Brick Church, Oct. 16, to hear an 

Address from Rev. J. D, Butler. 

D. P. THOMPSON, Secretary. 



29 

October 16, 1846. 



Society met. and the T ^al i , j- "October 16, 1846. 

assembled at O^tk^^'fTT'''' "^ '''''^'^^ ''^ '"-'^-^ '"--^ 

..nportance of p^.ervin. 1 f" "^ f" '""""""" ''"^'^'"^^' '""^"-^""g 'he 

hisaddress-requestt . .00 T ^ " *'' '"^"'""" "^'""''^ '^ ^^'•- «""-• ^^r 
adjourned. ' "^^ '°'' "" '---'—'-" -as adopted ; and the meeting 

ijm: '^:^':^tT '"' -^^^^-P-^-^ l-^ers were foun., 
fiTfn ..rr'- ^"^*""='°" «'"ongamassof rubbish and were 
fi .t pt.bl.shed .n-the Burlir,gto„ Free Press, the editor of which p 

S ev::?r" ' "'"^■'■'" ''" ^'^'^"^ i-nder,..ea. ob.igatio o M,' 
Stevens for h,sse,v.cesi,thut.ti.,g up ar.d a.-ra,.git,g official papers 
and other test.mo..y touehi..g the origin, p.ogress and final onsum 
mationofthe struggle, which resulted in Jivio^ to rh. A 

Switze..|andthep..oudi.K.ividualit,ofwhich!:::oV:stX^^^^ 
hope to see the State do justice to itself, and to M.- Steve, fy p^ 
chas.ng these papers, and putting the.n in a shape to rr.ake C 
available to the comtnunity at lar-^e When rhi. i , 7 

eno,,s„, r,e„ Y„,|^ „„ the o„e siJe, a„d New Hampshire on ih, 
Cher- Ue repulsed, if „„, rejected, by the home goy^Zl, Ini 
menaeed by a foreign foe. involved tbeexereise of oo com.oo, slac- 
»y, and an amount of nerve and energy, wi,h ,vhiob „e are „o,°fa 
mthar But so i. was. While m,i„,ai„in„ „„ „,,l-°^ ^^ 

pnrp with T\r„ u- ^ "t^ omtidl correspond- 

ence with Wash..agton-some of which is atnong these interesting 

papers-goes to demonstrate this, beyond a doubt ""^^^^t.ng 

t ,s due the honor of the State that something be done to sustain 

^a;e whosl' '" 'V''"''"^ ^''"^ " '""= '^ ''=''' ^^^ -ords 

slat oTthTut;: "''''-' '' "''- ''""-'-''^ ^'-^'^^ ^^-y other 

C. G. E. 

Vermont Dedaration of IiidepeiuleHce. 

.nd !o\v';ro7tL°VeVHatTr '"'''"" ^T'V/^^ — • -"-i- 

January ,5, 1777, by Idj^urm nent '""'^' '""^" '-^^ We.stminster, 

^Aerea,. the Honorable the Conti.,ental Congress di.l, on the 4th 



30 

(lay of July last, declare the United Colonies in America to be free 
and independent of the crown of Great Britain ; which declaration 
we most cordially acquiess in. And whereas by the said declaration, 
the arbitrary acts of the crown are null and void, in America. Con- 
sequently, the jurisdiction by said crown granted to New York gov- 
ernment over the people of the New Hampshire grants is totally dis- 
solved. 

IVe therefore, the inhabitants, on said tract of land, are at present 
without law or government, and may be truly said to be in a state of 
nature ; consecjuently a right remains to the people on said Grants, 
to form a Government best suited to secure their property well being 
and happiness. We the delegates from the several counties and towns 
on said tract of land, bounded as follows : South on the north line of 
Massachusetts Bay ; East, on Connecticut River ; North on Canada 
line; West asfiir as the New Hampshire Grants extends: After sev- 
eral adjournments for the purpose of forming ourselves into a distinct 
separate State, being assembled at Westminster, do make and publish 
the following Declaration, viz : 

"That we will at all times hereafter, consider ourselves as a free 
and independent State, capable of regulating our internal police, in 
all and every respect whatsoever. And that tiie people of said Grants 
have the sole and exclusive, and inherent right of ruling and govern- 
ing themselves, in such manner and form as in their own wisdom 
shall think proper, not inconsistent or repugnant to any resolve of the 
Honorable Continental Congress. 

Furthermore, we declare by all the ties which are held sacred among 
men, that we will firmly stand by and support one another in this our 
declaration of a State, and endeavoring as much as in us lies to sup- 
press unlawful routs and disturbances whatever. Also we will en- 
deavor to secure to every individual his life, peace and property, 
against all unlawful invaders of the same. 

Lastly, we hereby declare, that we are at all times ready, in con- 
junction with our brethren in the United .States of America, to do 
our full proportion in maintaining and supporting the just war, against 
the tyrannical invasions of the ministerial fleets and armies, as well 
as any other foreign enemies, sent with express purpose to murder 
our fellow brethren, and with fire and sword to ravage our defence- 
less country. 

The said State hereafter to be called by the name of New Connec- 
ticut." 

Extract from the minutes. 

IRA ALLEN, Clerk. 

In Convention of the Representatives from the several counties 
and towns in the New Hampshire Grants bolden at Westminster, 
15th January 1777, by adjournment, Voted unanimously. 

That it is the ardent wish of this Convention that each town in the 
District would send a Delegate or Delegates, to the next sitting of 
this Convention, those towns that have not chose any Delegates to 
choose and send. This Convention is adjourned to the first day of 
June next, to be held at the Meeting House in Windsor, at nine 
o'clock in the morning. 

Extract from the minutes. 

IRA ALLEN, Clerk 

*»'*Non-residents that have a desire to attend the above Conven- 



31 

tion,are hereby iiotilieiJ of the siniie, said Conveiuioii was foimeil to 
•ifdvern the Internal Police of said District, and if thought proper, to 
form said District into a Stale. 

STATE OK VERMONT, I 
In General Cor.vention, Wimlsor, June 4, 1777. ^ 

Whereas, this Convention, did at their session in Westminster, the 
15th day of January last, among other things, declare the district of 
land cuiMtnonly called and known hy the name of the New Hamp- 
shire Grants, to "be a free and independent State, capable of regu- 
lating their own internal police in all and every respect whatsoever, 
and that it should be known thereafter by the name of New Connecti- 
cut." 

And whereas, by mere accident, or through mistake, the said de- 
claration alone, was published in the Connecticut Courant, No. 634, 
dated March the I7th, 1777, without assigning the reasons which im- 
pelled the inhabitants to such separation. 

And whereas, this Convention have been informed that a district 
of land lying on the Susquehanah River, has been heretofore and is 
now known by the name of New Connecticut, which was unknown 
to them until some time since the declaration at Westminster afore- 
said : and as it would be inconvenient in many respects for two sepa- 
rate districts on this contineat to bear the same name ; 

Resolved, therefore, unanimously, that the said district described 
in the preamble to the declaration at Westminster, aforesaid, shall 
ever hereafter be called and known by the name of Vermont. 

And whereas, the whole body of members which compose this 
Convention, consisting of the following persons, viz: Captain Josiah 
Bowker, President; Nathan Clarke, Esq., Mr. Simeon Hatheway, 
Mr. John Burnam, jun., Jonas Fay, Secretary ; Major Jeremiah 
Clark, Mr. Abel Olia, Captain Ebenezer W'illoughly, Mr. Abel 
Benedict, Mr. Joseph Bradley, Mr. Ely Bronson, Mr. Martin Pow- 
ell, Mr. Thomas Bull, Mr. Cephas Kent, Mr. Moses Robinson 2d., 
Dr. Gains Smith, Captain William Fitch, Captain Jonathan Wil- 
lard, Mr. Caleb Smith, Capt. Zebediah Dewey, Mr, Jesse Church- 
ill, Captain William Gage, Captain Ebenezer Allen, Benjamin Spen- 
cer, Esq. Mr. Whitefield Foster, Mr. Joseph Smith, Mr. Stephen 
Pince, Mr. John Southerland, Captain Jonathan Fassett, Captain 
Josiah Powers, Captain Jeremiah Powers, Mr. Gamaliel Painter, 
Captain Heman Allen, Captian Ira Allen, Colonel Thomas Chitten- 
den, Mr. William Miller, Dr. William Hall, Col. Benjamin Car- 
penter, Captain John Barnet, Mr. Isreal Smith, Mr. John Dyer, Mr. 
Dennis Locklin, Nathaniel Robinson, Esq., Mr. Joshua Webb, Dr. 
Reuben Jones, Mr. Jabez Searjeants, Captain John Coffin, Captain 
William Uilly, Mr. Ebenezer Hoisington, Captain William Curtiss. 
Major Joel Mathews, Captain William Gallop, Mr. Benjamin Em- 
tnons, Mr. Stephen Tiiden, Col. Joseph Marsh, Mr. John Troop, 
John W. Dana, Esq., Mr. Asa Whitcomb, Mr. Asa Chandler, Col. 
Peter Alcott, Major Thomas Murdock, Mr. Jacob Burton, Joel 
Marsh, Esq. Mr. Daniel Gilbert, Mr. Abner Chamberlain, Mr. Fred- 
erick Smith, Mr. Amos Woodworth, Mr. Amabiah Woodworth, Dr. 
Bildad Andress, Mr. Benjamin Baldwin, Mr. John G. D. Bailey, 
Captain Robert Johnston. — amounting to seventy-two in number, be- 
ing all convened at the town house in Windsor, aforesaid, and the 
motion being made and seconded, whether the house would pro- 



32 

ceed to business on the former declaration made at Westniin>ter, iti 
January, aforesaid, with this alteration only, that instead of New 
Connnecticut, the said district should ever be known by the name of 
Vermont ? That then the name of the reptesentatives being dis- 
tinctly and severally called by the Secretary, seventy-one of them 
did answer in the words following, viz, " proceed to form ;" at which 
time and place the said sevetity-one tnembersdid renew their pledg- 
es to each other by all the ties held sacred among men, and resolve 
and declare that they were at all times ready in conjunction with 
their brethren in the United States, to contribute their full propor- 
tion towards maintaining the present just war against the fleets and 
armies of Great Britain, 

That the public may be capable offorming a just idea of the reasons 
which so necessarily obliged the inhabitants of the district before de- 
scribed, to declare themselves to be separate and distinct from the 
State of New York, the following complaints are hereto subjoined. 

COMPLAINTS. 

In the year 1764, the Legislative alithority of New York did ob- 
tain jurisdiction over the before described territory of land, by virtue 
of a false representation made by the late Lieut. Governor Golden, 
that for the convenience of trade and administration of justice the 
inhnbitants were desirious of being annexed to that Government. 

They have refused to make re-grants of the same lands to the ori- 
ginal proprietors and occupants, unless at the exorbitant rate of $2300 
fees for each township, and did enhance the quit rent three fold, and 
demanded an immediate delivery of the title derived before from 
New Hampshire. 

The Judges of their Supreme Court have made a solemn declara- 
tion, that the chartei's, conveyances, &c., of the lands included in the 
before described premises, were utterly null and void, on which said 
title was founded. 

In consequence of which declaration, writs of possession have 
by them issued, and the Sheriff of the County of Albany sent at the 
head of six or seven hundred armed men to enforce the execution 
thereof. 

They have passed an act annexing a penalty thereto, of thirty 
pounds, five and six months imprisonment, on any person who should 
refuse attending the sheriff after being requested for the purpose of 
executing writs of possession. 

The Governors, Dunmore, Tryon and Golden, have made re- 
grauts to several tracts of hind included in the premises, to certain 
favorite laiid-jol)bers in the Government of New York, in direct re- 
lation of his Britanic Majesty's special orders in the year 1767. 

They have endeavored and many times threatened to excite the 
King's troops to destroy us. 

They have issued proclamations wherein they have offered large 
sums of nione)' for the purpose of apprehending those persons who 
have dared boldly and publicly to appear -in defence of their just 
rights. 

They did pass twelve acts of outlawry on the 9th of March, A. D. 
1774, empowering the respective Judges of their Supreme Court, to 
award execution of death against those inhabitants in said district, 
that they should judge to be offenders, without trial. 



33 

They have and still continue an unjust claim to those lands, which 
greatly retards emigration into, and the setlement of this State. 

They have hired foreign troops, emigrants from Scotland, at dif- 
ferent times, and armed them to drive us out of possession. 

They have sent the savages on our frontiers to destroy us. 

They have proceeded to erect the counties of Cumberland and 
Gloucester, and established courts of justice there, after they were 
discountenanced by the authority of Great Britain, 

The free Convention of the State of New York, at Harlem, in 
the year 1776, unanimously voted, "that all quit-rents formerly due 
to the King of Great Britain, are now due and owing to this Conven- 
tion, or such future government as shall be established in this State." 

To give truth its due limits, they, the late government of New York, 
have spared neither cost or pains, nor been wanting in using every 
artful insinuation within the compass of their power; (however un- 
warrantable by the laws of God or man,) to defraud those inhabi- 
tants out of the whole of their landed property; and nothing but 
consciences void of offence towards God and man, to whose impartial 
judgment we appeal, could have. induced those inhabitants to have 
run the risk, and to have undergone the hardships and fatigues they 
have borne, for the salvation of their lives, liberties and properties. 

In the several stages of the aforesaid oppression, we have petition- 
ed his Britannic Majesty in the most bumble manner for^redress, and 
have at a very great expense, received several reports in our favor ; 
and in other instances wherein we have petitioned the late Legisla- 
tive authority of New York, these petitions have been treated with 
neglect. We shall therefore only remind the public that our local 
'situation alone, is a sufficient reason of our declaration of an inde- 
pendency, and must therefore denounce a separation from the State 
of New York, and refer the public to our declaration of being a dis- 
tinct State, published in the Connecticut Courant the 15th day of 
January last, and sincerely wish, that in future a lasting and pernsa- 
nent peace may continue between the State of New York and this 
with the other United States of America. 

By order of Convention, 

JONAS FAY, Secretary. 



^«The Song of the Vcrmonters," IW,* 

Ho' — all to the borders ! Vermonters, come down, 
With your breeches of deer-skin, and jackets of brown ; 
With your red woolen caps, and your moccasins, come 
To the gathering summons of trumpet and drum. 

Come down with your rifles ! — let gray wolf and fox 
Howl on in the shade of their primitive rocks ; 
Let the bear feed securely from pig-pen and stall ; 
Here 's a two-legged game for your powder and ball. 

On our South come the Dutchmen, enveloped in grease ; 
And, arming for battle, while canting of peace ; 
On our East, crafty Meshechf has gathered his band, 
To hang up our leaders, and eat out our land. 

Ho — all to the rescue ! For Satan shall work 
No gain for his legions of Hampshire and York ! 
They claim our possessions, — the pitiful knaves — 
The tribute we pay, shall be prisons and graves ! 

Let Clinton and Ten Broek,| with bribes in their hands. 
Still seek to divide us, and parcel our lands ; — 

*Tlie political history of Vermont is full of interest. In 1762, New York, by 
reason of an extraordinary grant of Charles II. to the Duke of York, claimed a ju-, 
risdiction over about sixty townships of which grants had been given by the Ciov- 
ernor of New Hampshire, declaring those grants illegal. An attempt was made to 
dispossess the settlers, but it was promptly resisted. In 1774, New York passed 
a most despotic law against the resisting Vermonters, and the Governor offered a 
large reward for the apprehension of the celebrated Ethan Allen, and seven of his 
associates. The proscribed persons in turn threatened to " kill and destroy any 
person or persons vvliunisoever that should be accessary, aiding or assisting in tak- 
ing any of them ." See Allen's Vindication, p. 45. Blood was shed at Westminster 
Court House, in 1775. Vide R. Jones' Narrative. In 1777, Vermont declared its 
i ndependence. New York still urged her claims and attempted to enforce them with 
her miliii;.. In 1779, New Hampshire also laid claim to the whole State of Ver- 
mont. Massachusetts speedily followed by pulling in her claims to about two-thirds 
of it. Congress, powerless under the old Confederation, endeavored to keep 
on good terms with all the parties, but ardently favored New York. Vermont 
remonstrated warmly. Congress threatened. Vermont published " an appeal to 
the candid and impartial world"— denounced Congress, and asserted its own abso- 
lute independence. ' Notwithstanding the threats offered on all sides, the contest 
terminated without much bloodshed, and Vermont was admitted into the Union in 
1791, after existing as an independent sovereignty for nearly fifteen years.— m/- 
liams' History of Vermont, ^-c. 

t Hon. Meshech Weare, Governor of New Hampshire. 

t Gov. Clinton, of New York, and Hon. A. Ten Broek, President of the New 
York Convention. 



35 

We 've coats for our traitors, whoever tbey are ; 
The warp is of feathers — the filling of tar ! § 

Does the " old bay State" threaten ? Does Congress complain i 

Swarms Hampshire in arms on our borders again ? 

Bark the war-dogs of Britain aloud on the lake ? 

Let 'era come 5 — what they can, they are welcome to take. 

What seek they among us ? The pride of our wealth 
Is comfort, contentment, and labor and health. 
And lands which, as Freemen, we only have trod, 
Independent of all, save the mercies of God. 

Yet we owe no allegiance ; we bow to no throne ; 
Our ruler is law, and the law is our own ; 
Our leaders themselves are our own fellow-men, 
Who can handle the sword, or the scythe, or the pen. 

Our wives are all true, and our daughters are fair, 

With their blue eyes of smiles, and their light flowing hair ; 

All brisk at their wheels till the dark even-fall. 

Then blithe at the sleigh-ride, the husking, and ball ! 

We 've sheep on the hill sides : we 've cows on the plain ; 
And gay-tasseled corn-fields, and rank-growing grain ; 
There are deer on the mountains ; and wood-pigeons fly 
From the crack of our njuskets, like clouds on the sky. 

And there 's fish in our streamlets and rivers, which take 
Their course from the hills to our broad-bosomed lake ; 
Through rock-arched Winooski the salmon leaps free, 
And the portly shad follows all fresh from the sea. 

Like a sun-beam the pickerel glides through bis pool ; 
And the spotted trout sleeps where the water is cool, 
Or darts from his shelter of rock and of root 
At the beaver's quick plunge, or the angler's pursuit. 

And ours are the mountains, which awfully rise 

Till they rest their green heads on the blue of the skies ; 

And ours are the forests unwasted, unshorn. 

Save where the wild path of the tempest is torn. 

§ The New York sheriffs and those who submitted to the authority of New York 
were often roughly liandled by the Green Mountain Boys. The following is from 
the journal of the proceedings of the Vermont Council of public safety :— Council of 

Safety, 3d Sept.. 1777. " is permitted to return home, and remain 

on his father's farm (and, if found off to expect thirty-nine lashes of the, beach seal) 
until further orders from this Council." The instrument of punishment was termed 
the " beach sea/," in allusion to the great seal of New Hampshire affixed to the 
grants, of which the beach rod well Inid upon the naked backs of the " Yorkers" 
and tlieir adherents was considered a confirmation. 



36 

And though savage and wild be this climate of ours, 

And brief be our season of fruits and of flowers, 

Far dearer the blast round our mountains which raves, 

Than the sweet summer zephyr, which breathes over slaves. 

Hurra for Vermont ! for the land which we till 
Must have sons to defend her from valley and hill ; 
Leave the harvest to rot on the field where it grows, 
And the reaping of wheat for the reaping of foes. 

Far from Michiscoui's wild valley, to where 
Poosoomsuck steals down from his wood-circled lair, 
From Shocticook river to Lutterlock town, — 
Ho — all to the rescue ! Vermonters, come down ! 

Come York or come Hampshire, — come traitors and knaves ; 
If ye rule o'er our land, ye shall rule o'er our graves ; 
Onr vow is recorded — our banner unfurled ; 
In the name of "Vermont we defy all the world ! || 

II " Rather than fail, I will retire with my hardy Green Mountain Boys to the 
desolate caverns of the mountains, and wage war with human nature at largt." — 
F.than Allen's Letter to Congress, March 9, 1784. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



014 042 849 8 # 




